Samsung keeps lagging in the Windows Phone race

It could be that Samsung (005930) simply does not care, but the world’s biggest smartphone brand is off to a notably weak start in the Windows Phone 8 race. On a British website tracking handset sales across all UK carriers, Nokia’s (NOK) Lumia 920 is at No.5 and the Lumia 820 is at No.10. Samsung’s ATIV S does not crack the top-10 list.

At Expansys UK, the black Lumia 920 holds the top spot on the best-seller list and the yellow Lumia 920 is on the pre-order list; there are no Samsung Windows Phone models on the best-seller list, while the gray ATIV S is at No.8 on pre-order list.

At Expansys Germany, there are three Lumia models ahead of the ATIV S. Even at Expansys France, several Nokia or HTC (2498) models trump the ATIV S on best-seller and pre-order lists. Samsung’s brand has been stronger in France than in the UK or Germany over the past couple of years.

Two Lumias made it to Dial A Phone’s most popular list, but the ATIV S does not. Lumias also trump the ATIV S on the most popular phone lists from Phonehouse Germany and UK. The big British site Phones 4 U splashes two Lumias on its front page list of eight contract models — no ATIV S in sight.

Samsung clearly had a slower start in Windows Phone 8 market, with Nokia rolling out the Lumia 920 in November and HTC getting its budget phone, the Windows Phone 8S, out by the third week of December. But it’s striking that in the third week of January, Samsung still appears to lag behind Lumia models and in many cases HTC’s Windows range. Usually, newer launches tend to pop in the sales charts at least for a couple of weeks; and Samsung typically gets its models strong placement in Europe’s leading handset retail websites.

It is possible that Samsung simply wants to prioritize the hot Galaxy S III and Note II models; and these two are being promoted strongly by European carriers and retailers. Regardless of the reason why, the ATIV S’ surprisingly weak showing seems to be giving Nokia and HTC room to exploit the marketing support that carriers are allocating to Windows Phone 8.